Leadership Qualities of a Wolf Pack

 Published on May 22, 2017

Gregg Swanson, PCC, NLP

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Proven Performance Consultant: Mental/Sales/Business, Goal Attainment Sherpa,
Personal/Entrepreneur/Start-ups/Corporate222 articles
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After having spent a considerable amount of time observing the behavioral traits of wolves, I
have come to the conclusion that wolf’s posse a number of leadership traits which leaders in the
business world could benefit from it they developed the same traits as well. These include:

 Unlimited Patience
 Never Ending Curiosity
 Desire to Work as a Team
 Robust Strategy and Careful Planning
 A Sense of Urgency
  Unwillingness to Quit
Have you ever noticed how social wolves are in the wild? Wolves in a particular pack go
everywhere together; they sleep, hunt, eat, and even play together; they are by all account a
perfect team. Wolf packs range in size, as do management hierarchies in the business world.
However, most wolf packs tend to have six or seven members. Ironically, many highly
successful executive teams also tend to have 6 or 7 members. Each of these members plays a
specific role, as do the different wolves in a pack. Another similarity is the fact that young
wolves often leave their pack in order to try and gain a higher status; a trait which we regularly
see in the world of business, where young up and coming employees go in search of greener
pastures.

In a wolf pack, the older wolves are typically the leaders who make decisions on behalf of the
pack. So, let’s take a look at the leadership traits of wolves, and how people in leadership
positions could benefit from them.

Robust Strategy and Careful Planning

Wolves are extremely successful hunters that do not demonstrate any form of panic even when a
hunt is unsuccessful. Rather than panicking, a pack of wolves will simply refine their plan so as
to ensure that they are able to capture and kill their next pray. Unlike many business leaders,
wolves are notoriously patient and they are well aware of the fact that not every hunt is going to
result in a kill, regardless of how well the pack work together; they know that a 100% success
rate is simply not realistic. Every member of the pack knows what their role is, and they are
happy to live up to that responsibility.

Another interesting aspect about wolves is the fact that they have been observed to display a
sense of prey management. They will often hunt in alternating areas within their territory each
year, thereby allowing pray numbers to recover which in turn helps to secure the survival of a
pack over the long term.

Pack member also rarely fight among themselves. Even though each wolf in a pack is expected
to fulfill their specific role, they are very tolerant of each other, and also very patient. If one pack
member seems to be lagging, the rest of the pack gives it a chance to catch up, and it is this sort
of coexistence which helps to establish unity among the group. Each wolf in a pack has a specific
role, and they are exceptionally good at making sure that there are never any duplicate efforts
between the different group members.

Wolves Don’t Throw In the Towel

Wolves never quite! If they go out hunting and they don’t succeed, they regroup and they simply
try again. For them, the mission is not over until the pack leader says it is over. They are
definitely not successful 100% of the time, but they certainly don’t throw in the towel. If Plan A
does not work, they will move on to Plan B, Plan C and etc. When it comes to achieving their
goals, wolves are relentless, which is obviously a highly desirable trait if success is important to
you. It is the sort of leadership trait which any business could benefit from.
Curiosity
Wolves are incredibly curious with regard to their surroundings. They’re constantly sniffing
about and investigating any potential opportunities. This is also a trait which can be seen among
many of today’s top business leaders. They take nothing for granted, and they have an extremely
strong sense of curiosity, eager to investigate anything which has the potential to benefit the
team.

Desire to Work as a Team

If you have ever watched any documentaries about wolves, you will have noticed just how
dependent a pack is on teamwork. They rely on teamwork for the survival of the pack, because
without it, virtually no hunt would be successful. Each pack member has his or her own role to
play, and all pack members respect each other’s responsibilities. The Alpha male and his female
partner will make the all-important decisions, and the more junior wolves in the pack respect
that, and they do their share to uphold those decisions because they know that the pack as a
whole stands to benefit.

A Strong Sense of Urgency

Wolves are one of the planet’s most effective and most successful hunters. When it is time to
hunt, wolves become very serious and totally focused on their mission, displaying a unique sense
of urgency. When it is time for them to hunt for pray, they adopt a sense of urgency because
unlike many humans, wolves hunt to live, but they don’t live to hunt. When it is time to hunt,
hunting is their top priority because their survival depends on it, and all members of the pack are
going to do their share, including the alpha male.

Sadly, many companies struggle to achieve greatness even though they have the potential, and
this only because they are being controlled by CEOs who put their own interests before the
interests of the companies they are supposed to be leading.

Gregg Swanson is a sales performance consultant and business coach and has authored
several books and numerous articles on peak performance and creator of “Sales Strong.”
Gregg specializes helping sales professionals develop mental strength for optimum sales
performance. You can pick-up your complementary report, “The Most Critical Step in Sales” by
going HERE.
Here is a description of a wolf pack that has been in circulation since the end
of last year. The photo shows 25 wolves walking in a single file line in the
snow.
“A wolf pack: the first 3 are the old or sick, they give the pace to the entire
pack. If it was the other way round, they would be left behind, losing contact
with the pack. In case of an ambush they would be sacrificed. Then come 5
strong ones, the front line. In the centre are the rest of the pack members,
then the 5 strongest following. Last is alone, the alpha. He controls everything
from the rear. In that position he can see everything, decide the direction. He
sees all of the pack. The pack moves according to the elders pace and help
each other, watch each other.”
A wonderful metaphor for leadership, collaboration and teamwork. The natural
world gives us these metaphors that make us think about our human
condition.
Leadership, vulnerability, hierarchy, survival, resilience, coping mechanisms,
and collective action. All in one.
What a pity that it’s a hoax. Well, certainly not true.
‘It shows 25 timber wolves hunting bison in Wood Buffalo National Park in
Canada. The female alpha wolf led the pack, and the others followed in a
single file line to save energy as they made their way through deep snow,
according to the environmental website Environment. (truthorfiction.com)’
Analogies are easy to construct. It’s part of human nature to see patterns,
make conclusions, and infer good theories. It’s ‘practical’: ‘Nothing is quite so
practical as a good theory’ (Kurt Lewin, father of social psychology 1890-
1947).
Of course there are the artificial, the made up, the lies. But this is not always
the case. They often represent a genuine attempt to produce an explanation,
‘a theory’.
Sports analogies in business are very frequent as well. I am very sceptical of
the transferability of climbing high mountains to the leadership of the
enterprise, of navigating solo in the Atlantic and the resilient organization. I
have only been convinced once (very impressive) with boat racing. I am
willing to see other areas, but I am not not very successful.
You could say that human behaviour, individual and collective, has to have
commonalities (and analogies) in many areas, so I should be more open to
this. You may have a point.
In the meantime, that wolf pack was not the wolf pack that explained the clues
of leadership and collaboration. But it stayed in Facebook long enough to be
elevated to the category of the truth.
I wonder how many other wolf packs there are around?